MetaChat - Good once, now bad

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20 May 2005

Good once, now bad Let's make a list of things that used to be good that have become bad.

post by: PinkStainlessTail at: 01:11 | 42 comments

I'll start:

Clark bars: had one lately? I don't know what happened, but they taste like shit now. It's something more than HFC replacing sugar...

The Residents: Demons Dance Alone was fucking boring.

posted by PinkStainlessTail 20 May | 01:13

A lot of things that used to be good but are now bad were only good in the first place because of context.

Like Star Wars.

posted by gramschmidt 20 May | 01:16

Dustin Hoffman.

posted by taz 20 May | 01:18

Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch used to be MUCH more peanut-buttery.

posted by davidmsc 20 May | 01:21

The internet.

posted by loquacious 20 May | 01:24

My own tastes tend toward the less-than-conventional, but I'm sure some people would include Sting in this list.

posted by gramschmidt 20 May | 01:25

Some more

Sluggy Freelance: a webcomic that used to be amusing, but somewhere along the way became unspeakably turgid.

Ben Elton: From The Young Ones to a musical based on the songs of Rod Stewart in just under twenty years.

posted by PinkStainlessTail 20 May | 01:31

Ah, thanks for the reminder: Richard Curtis.

posted by gramschmidt 20 May | 01:33

(BTW, I'd sure like to be able to edit that "and" in the post to a "that.")

posted by PinkStainlessTail 20 May | 01:35

better?

posted by taz 20 May | 01:38

Thanx luv (for the fix and the site).

Goldie Hawn's face: I bet she'd look terrific today if she had just let nature take its course, instead of having extremely unconvincing plastic surgery.

posted by PinkStainlessTail 20 May | 01:40

True... but, look! Aaarr! A pirate! So I forgive her.

posted by taz 20 May | 02:11

This will take a while, huh...

Pink Floyd
Dragonball (yeah, yeah, I know...But that's because y'all have only ever seen the bad, when it was an action cartoon. It used to be a comedy comic, for the first four issues)
Most subgenres of techno
Steve Buscemi's appearance
Tim Burton
America (teehee)
The Simpsons

Aw heck, suffice it to say "any entertainment media that's existed more than two years"

posted by bugbread 20 May | 02:17

Autechre

posted by AlexReynolds 20 May | 02:37

Clark Bars? I recall Harlan Ellison ranting about how they had gone downhill in his short story, Jeffty is Five. If you haven't read that PST, then you should, By God!

posted by Dagobert 20 May | 02:38

A banana that sits on my refrigerator. It went bad just this morning.

posted by debris 20 May | 02:43

My secret stash of Deutschmarks.

posted by gaydolfshitler 20 May | 02:50

My life. :(

posted by seanyboy 20 May | 03:17

Tony Blair.

posted by seanyboy 20 May | 03:17

Well, unlike seanyboy, I can't remember a time when my life was particularly great, so I can't use that one.

Oh, wait - no, it's gone.

Sorry, everything sucks, always has, always will.

posted by dg 20 May | 07:04

Sluggy Freelance: a webcomic that used to be amusing, but somewhere along the way became unspeakably turgid.

Oh thank god.

I heard from people for years how great Sluggy was, then about six months ago I finally got an RSS feed so I could read it on a more real time basis.

Wow, I thought, this strip sucks. But I figured it was just me and have kept reading, thinking perhaps I just needed to get more familiar with the characters.

But ... spaceships? I thought it was about a Killer Rabbit.

posted by anastasiav 20 May | 07:27

Music! Music used to be great, but new music sucks.

posted by dg 20 May | 08:06

yup, Simpsons, and Will and Grace and Cocoa Puffs and Gawker.

posted by amberglow 20 May | 08:25

my sex life

posted by quonsar 20 May | 08:32

The future. (it's not as good as it used to be)

posted by taz 20 May | 08:51

Well Gary Glitter used to be pretty good, but now he's very very bad.

posted by dodgygeezer 20 May | 08:57

Everything.

posted by graventy 20 May | 09:22

The Mountain Goats. This was released 10 years ago. It's one of my favourite songs ever.

posted by blag 20 May | 09:53

getting really drunk and then waking up early in the morning still a little drunk and walking down the street to work in the rain.

That is just NO fun anymore. Bah.

posted by mygothlaundry 20 May | 09:56

Eddie Izzard
Spinning Class
Magnetic Poetry

posted by rainbaby 20 May | 10:34

Titian. The early work's great, but the current stuff sucks. Did you see that rotating inflatable St. John the Baptist in a fish tank at the Tate Modern last year? Yecch.

posted by gramschmidt 20 May | 10:48

the american dollar.

posted by kellydamnit 20 May | 10:49

My ability to stay on topic.

Are the Mountain Goats really bad now? I don't have any of the new albums, I stopped at All Hail West Texas, so I wouldn't know. John Darnielle seems like a songwriter who'd never change much. Oh, if it's true I'd be sad. Going to Georgia and The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton are such great songs.

On preview: and the dollar.

posted by safetyfork 20 May | 11:29

Everyone else seems to like The Sunset Tree. Maybe it's a grower. Maybe because he hasn't bettered Port Washington in 10 years. Maybe it was just an excuse to post a link to a great song ;)

posted by blag 20 May | 11:50

Clark Bars? I recall Harlan Ellison ranting about how they had gone downhill in his short story, Jeffty is Five.

I have read that story! I knew it wasn't just my rant, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen it. Funny thing though: given our age difference and when the story was published, the Clark bars that I'm lamenting are probably the ones Ellison was castigating. Clark bars in the 40s and 50s must have been truly magnificent...

posted by PinkStainlessTail 20 May | 11:56

My underpants.

Phew.

posted by loquacious 20 May | 11:59

This thread.

posted by metachat's first puppet account 20 May | 12:03

Maybe it was just an excuse to post a link to a great song ;)

Blag, I hear you!

posted by safetyfork 20 May | 12:43

Safetyfork, their last album (they're a "they" now!), We Shall All Be Healed, had at least one (1) really good song on it, "Mole". There's a new one out now that I have not heard.

King Crimson.

posted by kenko 20 May | 14:18

Kenko, good to know I'm definitely on the hunt since seeing them recently (where many songs seemed to be surprisingly from the earlier catalogue). From what you and blag have said, I think I'll just have to find a way to have a listening party / contest between We Shall All Be Healed and The Sunset Tree...
__

Cat’s foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia’s poison door.
Twenty first century schizoid man

I love the version on Earthbound... I think I enjoy them up to Discipline, after that I'm not so certain where I stand except for in the end you are so very right.

posted by safetyfork 20 May | 16:02

I liked VROOOM and some of their recent live improv stuff is good (eg "The Deception of the Thrush" which has made multiple appearances), but the studio albums after, and including, Thrak, eh.

posted by kenko 20 May | 17:23

Coke. (Coca-Cola, that is. As to other possible interpretations, I know nothing, nothing.)

posted by languagehat 21 May | 13:31

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